Wrap Up of China

Many folks have been wondering where the final wrap up of this trip is. I'm sorry to say that with the arrival of our principals, we hit what's called "game day" mode and things like updating this blog become trivial at best. That said, there were some interesting things that took place on the trip to fill y'all in on.

Wednesday, December 13 - GAME DAY 1

This is when the trip really gets started. Up to this point, we have conference calls about protocol, meetings with our Chinese counterparts and staff meetings to make sure our "Ts" are crossed and our "Is" are dotted. Now, if it's not nailed down, it's out the window. Because there was little media involvement, my role was quite diminished. Nonetheless, the by the night of the 13th, we had the following cabinet-level principals in theater:

• Secretary of Treasury Paulson


• Secretary of Labor Chao


• Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Leavitt
  
• Secretary of Energy Bodman


• Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez


• EPA Administrator Johnson


• USTR Ambassador Schwab


• Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bernanke

In addition, all these folks have sr. and support staff, increasing our delagation number to about 180. On the afternoon on the 13th, the Chinese security forces that are the equivalent of our Secret Service locked down our two floors of the hotel and required everyone who didn't have a "hard pin" (which you wear on your lapel) to go through mags, better known as metal detectors. It became a little bit of a pain in that only one set of elevators even went to our floors and if you took off your jacket and forgot your hard pin, you stand in a line for the mags.

Thursday, December 14 - Game Day 2

Rather than detail every portion of the trip and everything that the principals did, let's leave it to the fact that they had many, many high level meetings. Rather, I wanted to explain how I fit into all of this and what me and the media staff's role was. Essentially, prior to any arrival of a principal, we had come to agreements with the Chinese on what was open to the press and what would be closed. Much of the day was closed to the press, with the exception of allowing still photographers and TV crews to do what's known as a "spray." That is, they come in for 2-3 minutes while people shake hands, give opening comments, etc. The delema, then, is that the print reporters who have traveled from D.C. have very little to report on. Our job on the press side, other than making sure the U.S. photographers and TV stations get a fair shake, is to determine ways that the traveling press get information so that they can file. Our solution is what's known as a "gaggle." a gaggle is an on-the-record interview with a group of reporters all at one time, usually off camera.

(A little more on my time prior to arrival) The greatest battle of our trip was making the Chinese agree to allow our press corp into the Great Hall of the People so that we could gaggle in between meetings. And when I mean battle, I mean the most impressive stone walling you have ever seen. they would send us from one person to the next to get permission to use a room.

Once that person would acquiesse to our request, we'd go back to the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs and they'd tell us that clearly that person had no authority to make that decision and to go to another. This went on and on... to the point that I told my Chinese counterpart that I was frustrated, disappointed and that we had never been treated like this in any other county. Apparently, that was a bit of a misstep. It could be better described as a slap in the face to the Chinese. They were willing to give us a room, but would charge us $15,000 U.S., and to them that was reasonable. Well, my counterpart then began a disertation on dimplomacy and that clearly I was no diplomat. This man had an incredible grasp of the ovbvious. In the end, the Minister of Finance told the Foriegn Affairs folks to knock it off and to give the American press the room. This was a great victory for us, so that now we could get info to print reporters.

In between the sessions at the Great Hall, I would meet our given cabinet official(s) in the hallway outside our press hold room and brief them on what to expect- i.e. who was in the room, what we'd like that secretary to do and how long they should expect to take questions. It all went relatively smoothly. The secretaries for day one were: Leavitt, Ambassador Schwab, Chao and Gutierrez. All did great.

In addition to press briefings, one of the other main responsibilities is making sure that the press is staying out of trouble and keeping in the motorcade. Literally, everytime we got on our press charter, we took role of reporters to ensure that no one gets left behind. During those rides, we also brief the press on changes in the schedule, tell a few jokes, and answer any logistical questions. For us, the job isn't about being the spokesman for the trip. The job is to make sure that every reporter has the means available to report accurately from the location. In respect to Bloomberg TV and CNBC, it was making sure the hotel would allow satellite trucks to park out front and that their facilities were set for the TV stations. We also print out late-night schedule changes and deliver them to reporters by slipping them under doors so that they always know the movement of the motorcade.

When we returned to the hotel that night, we had built out the ball room for what we called open media time. Basically, we built for 10 x 10 spaces in the corners of the ballrooms for television stations to set up mini studios and then tables for print reporters to interview principals. Then, the principals would show up and do interviews that were either already scheduled or just wander a little and get an interview here or there.

After the hour, the principals went on a tour of the Forbidden City and then onto a dinner, which we allowed photos at the top of. The interesting thing was that even at places like the dinner, the Chinese would try and change our media agreements at the time of the event, or with 5 minutes until it began. I really believe that it was just to make it difficult for us. In turn, we would allow our reporters to stay just a little longer, or allow them to be somewhere that wasn't necessarily agreed upon.

At this point in the trip, I was pretty much ready to be home and eating familiar foods, so McDonalds became a staple. Those of you who know me well know that I detest McDonalds. But I tell you this- in China it is like ambrosia...the food of the gods from Greek mythology. With that, dinner that night was at Outback Steakhouse. I can tell you this, however, about the "Outback"... other than a faked/ stolen logo and a okay Bloomin Onion, I seriously doubt this had anything to do with the Outbacks of the U.S. Like most of the name brand action in China, I'm pretty sure that the Outback had some sort of Copyright violation going on.

On the night of the 14th, I also found out that I would be offered a seat on the military flight, or Mil Air, for the ride home and I would get home a full day earlier than expected. It was a great surprise.

Friday, December 15- GAME DAY 3

The final day was pretty much fast a furious. At noon the buildout in the ballroom began so that we could hold the final press conference and tht meant that our numbers on the media staff would be down so that we could make sure someone at the buildout to make sure everything was perfect.

For the most part, Friday was a great re-hash of Thursday. Meetings at the Great Hall, and gaggles with the press. We did have one press event that caused yet another yelling match with the Chinese- this time in front of our press corps. The Chinese had agreed to us that our travling pool could stay in the hold room up until the final press appearance with the Chinese at the Great Hall. Well about 30 minutes before the start, they decided, that they wanted us to leave the hold on the 3rd floor, walk THROUGH the event area, and down 3 flihts of stairs to stand in a scrum with the press in the entry so that "everyone could have a fair seat." However, if we did that, it would have put all my guys at the back of the bunch and we would have been out of luck. After a lot of shouting and the assitance of my very sweet, very calm translator, we came to the agreemnt that only the TV camera men would have to go downstairs to stand in the scrum. I was find with that because I had already arranged for them to set up their cameras. Their place was already set. So, we had these two big burly American camera guys "work" their way to the front of the group and make sure that they were set. Meanwhile, as soon as the Chinese did their "starting" line, we just walked our press over, much to the chagrin of the Chinese. All the while, I went and held two full rows of seats.

After that event, we had some speeches, etc. The big deal for the American delegation was the final press conference at the hotel. Turns out that we had more than 100 reporters at the press conference and more than 20 cameras there. One interesting thing to note. At this point in the trip, I moved from my hotel suite to a two-bedroom suite and converted one room to a briefing room for press, etc. Because this was a press event, we would have to brief all of the participants. So I suppose one of the more random journal entries is that on Friday night, I held a briefing for seven cabinet officials... in my hotel room... in China. That's a biggy for me- it was a pretty cool experience.

Immediately following the presser, we hopped in the motorcade and loaded up onto the Mil Air flight. That was easily one of the neatest experiences of the trip. Crusing through Beijing in a motorcade and then pulling up to a U.S. Military aircraft on it's own runway. The plane (picture below) had the blue pinstripe and no logo other than "The United States of America" printed on the sides. The flight was the most intimidating of the trip, as well. Seated next to me was Sec. Gutierrez and across the aisle was Ambassador Schwab. They were extremely kind and considerate- one last and funny experience. We're on the flight and all these folks are talking about the books they're currently reading. One had a policy book on Economic policies in the 1920s and the effects of capitalism. Sec. Gutierrez had a book on the life of Fidel Castro. You get the picture here- I don't think that anyone here necessarily reads the Sunday Funnies, if you know what I mean. So, they all turn to me and ask what I'm reading. Sheepishly, I answered something about my Tom Clancy book...